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Physiological and neural correlates of worry and rumination: Support for the contrast avoidance model of worry
Author(s) -
Steinfurth Elisa C. K.,
Alius Manuela G.,
Wendt Julia,
Hamm Alfons O.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
psychophysiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.661
H-Index - 156
eISSN - 1469-8986
pISSN - 0048-5772
DOI - 10.1111/psyp.12767
Subject(s) - worry , rumination , psychology , contrast (vision) , neural correlates of consciousness , cognitive psychology , anxiety , cognition , neuroscience , psychiatry , artificial intelligence , computer science
The current experiments tested neural and physiological correlates of worry and rumination in comparison to thinking about neutral events. According to the avoidance model—stating that worry is a strategy to reduce intense emotions—physiological and neurobiological activity during worried thinking should not differ from activation during neutral thinking. According to the contrast avoidance model—stating that worry is a strategy to reduce abrupt shifts of emotions—activity should be increased. To test these competing models, we induced worry and neutral thinking in healthy participants using personal topics. A rumination condition was added to investigate the specificity of changes induced by the mental process. Two experiments were conducted assessing the effects on different response levels: (1) neural activation using fMRI, and (2) physiological response mobilization using startle and autonomic measures. During worry, participants showed a potentiated startle response and BOLD activity indicative of emotional network activation. These data partly support the contrast avoidance model of worry. Both mental processes showed elevated activity in a common network referred to as default network indicating self‐referential activity.